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BEG' 



EUGENE FIELD 



THE 
STORY OF HIS LIFE FOR CHILDREN 



BY 

CLARA BANTA 



A. T. SWEET, Publisher 

KANSAS CITY, MO. 



fe 



a. 






22453 



Copyrig-ht, 1898, 
By A. T. Sweet. 






PREFACE. 



The purpose of this little volume is 
twofold ; first, to place within the hands 
of the children a stor^- of this sweet sing- 
er of the lays of childhood, in so simple 
a form that it can be read and understood 
by them while yet in the lower g-rades, 
with the hope that it may fill them with 
the desire to read and to memorize the 
poems of their own loved laureate ; and, 
second, to assist the teacher in the prep- 
aration of memorial exercises for the 
observance of Field Day in the public 
schools. 



If this little story creates a love for 
Eugene Field in the breast of one little 
child, or in any way lig-htenes the burden 
of one weary teacher, it will not have 

been written in vain. C. B. 

Kansas City, Missouri, 

December 8, 1898. 



2)eOicate^ to 

Zbc JBo^s anD tbe (5irl9 

Mbo arc Ibclping JSuilD 

B /IRonument to 

^bc /IRcmori5 ot 

Bugene jficlD 



CONTENTS. 



I. — Boyhood. 

II.— School Life. 

III. — Newspaper and Literary Work. 

IV.— Home Life. 

V. — Conclusion. 




EUGENE FIELD 
By Permission of Mrs. Field. 



Buoene jFtelb 



I. 

BOYHOOD. 

*'Lristen, my children, and you shall hear" 

not 
"Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere," 

UT of a man who is called the Child- 
ren's Poet. A man whom all of you 
love, because he wrote verses for little 
people. 

No other poet ever made such beautiful, 
simple rhymes for the willing, listening- 
ears of childhood. No other man was 
ever loved by half so many childish 
hearts. 



EUGKNK FIELD 



Would jou not like to know the name 
of this friend of yours? It is Bug-ene 
Field, the Children's Laureate. 

On September 2, 1850, in the city of 
St. Louis, there was born to Roswell 
Martin Field and his wife, Frances Reed 
Field, a little son, whom they named 
Eugene. 

When this little boy was but six years 
old the dear mother died, and Eug-ene 
and his brother, Roswell, were taken to 
New England where they lived with 
their cousin, Miss Mary Field French, in 
Amherst, Massachusetts. 

Here in this old college town he spent 
his quiet, happy childhood. When nine 
years old he and his brother went to their 
grandmother's country home in Vermont. 
It was Eus-ene's first visit to the country. 



KUGHNS FIEI.D 



and how he enjoyed it! He said after- 
wards that his love for nature dates from 
that visit. 

He must have looked at everything- very 
carefully, for he has told us of so many 
things in nature — of the birds, the flow- 
ers, the trees, the toads, and the bees — 
in a poem that tells of his boyhood days. 

Read the poem, "Long- Ag-o," in his 
Little Book of Western Verse, and you 
will see things in nature you never saw 
before, althoug-h you may have looked 
at them many times. 

The boys remained here in the country 
for seven months ; but the days were not 
as full of happiness for the grandmother 
as they were for Kugene and Roswell, 
for sometimes they sorely tried the dear 
old lady's patience. 



KUGENE FIKLD 



She was very anxious for Kug-ene to be 
a preacher when he became a man, so 
she hired him to write sermons when he 
was a little boy, g-iving- him ten cents for 
every one he wrote. Kug-ene was at that 
time fully persuaded to become a preacher; 
but whether it was the regard for his 
g-randmother's wishes, or the love of the 
ten cents, we do not know. One of these 
juvenile sermons was kept and is now in 
possession of his family. It is a very 
solemn and awful plea for wicked people 
to become better. 

He was also paid five dollars for learn- 
ing- the Ten Commandments. He did 
not then enjoy studying* the Bible. But 
when a man he said, "I would not ex- 
change for any amount of money the ac- 
quaintance with the Bible that was 
drummed into me when I was a boy." 



EUGENE FIELD 



He did enjoy, however, learning- pieces 
to speak and then reciting- them to his 
friends. Some of his favorites were. 
Long- fellow's "Psalm of Life," and the 
last part of "The Building- of the Ship," 
Drake's "American Flag-," Bryant's 
"Death of the Flowers," Mrs. Hemans' 
"Landing- of the Pilg-rims" and Halleck's 
" Marco Bozzaris." 

He was very kind to every thing-, but 
especially so to animals. He made pets 
of all he could g-et except the horse, for 
he was always afraid of this g-ood servant 
of mankind. His brother has told us 
that every friendless dog- or homeless cat 
always found in him a champion and 
friend. 

He loved to call his pets by fanciful, 
unheard-of names, and imag-ined each 
one had a languag-e of its own which he 



EUGEJNK F*IKI.D 



understood. He would talk to them in 
this peculiar tong-ue, and felt they knew 
what he said. 

Caring- for the poultry was p art of his 
work. Once when among- them he stepped 
on a little chick and killed it. He rushed 
to the house, threw himself down on the 
sofa, and cried as if his heart would 
break. He was a true "Band of Mercy" 
boy, even if there was no band then for 
him to join. His kindness toward ani- 
mals remained with him throug-h life. 
When he had children of his own he 
taug-ht them to be g-ood to dumb crea- 
tures, often saying- to them, "Remember 
the pussy and the puppy think you are a 
g-reat, big- g-iant." 

In their New Eng*land home they had 
a dog- whose name was Pido, but 'Gene 



EUGKOK FIELD 



called him Doolej^ His pity for this pet 
suffering- from heat and fleas called 
forth his first rhyme. 

It was not ver}^ pretty poetry,but it was 
quite g-ood for a boy to write, and it 
shows us what a kind hearted little fellow 
he was. A boy who loves animals and 
treats them kindly never grows up to be 
a bad man. 

Years afterward Mr. Field wrote about 
Doole}' in a poem called "The Bench- 
Leg-g-ed Fyce." Would you not like to 
read it? 

One Christmas, while the boys were 
still in Amherst, they had a Christmas 
tree. After the presents were taken off, 
Eug-ene and "Roswell planted the tree at 
the corner of Sunset Avenue and Amity 
Street. Kug-ene never forgot it, and 



8 KUGKNK FlKlvD 

many years afterward in talking- with a 
friend he said he hoped sometime to re- 
turn to the old town and put on the tree 
an inscription something- like this: 

"Pause, busy traveler, and g-ive a 
thought to the happy days of two west- 
ern boys who lived in old New England, 
and make resolve to render the boyhood 
near you happier and brighter." 



EUGENE FIELD 



11. 

SCHOOL UFE. 

ipUGENE remained in Amherst with 
his kind hearted, motherly cousin till 
he was about nineteen 3^ears of ag-e. 

Durin(f this time he had been sent to 
school in Amherst, and had also spent a 
year in Williams College, which is in 
Williamstown, Massachusetts. He should 
have entered colleg-e two years earlier, 
but could not on account of poor health. 

In the summer of 1869 his father died, 
and he went with his g-uardian, Dr. Bur- 
g-ess, to Galesburg-, Illinois, where he 
attended Knox Colleg^e for a year. The 
next year he went to Missouri and 



10 EUGKNK FIKLD 

entered the State University at Colum- 
bia, where his brother was then in school. 

In speaking- of his school life here, he 
once said to a friend, "Columbia was an 
old slave-holding- town, but I liked it. 
I've g-ot a streak of Southern feeling- in 
me. 

While in school at Columbia, he was 
not a very g-ood student; but he was a 
great favorite with the young- men of the 
school. He helped them with the colleg-e 
paper, was the author of their song-s, 
and a leader in all their fun and frolics. 
Sometimes this fun was carried too far 
and became real mischief. 

Dr. Reed, the president of the univer- 
sity at this time, had a fine carriag-e horse 
of which he was very proud. One night 
KutJ-ene Field roached this horse's mane 



EUGENE FIELD 11 

and shaved its tail. There was a white 
horse, also, in the same barn, and this 
one he painted red, white and blue. 

The next morning- when Dr. Reed went 
to the barn, he did not know his own 
horses, and turned the painted one out 
as a stray. In a short time a man stopped 
and asked him if his big- gray mule was 
for sale. This mule buyer was Eugene 
Field disguised so that Dr. Reed did not 
know him. 

Injuring- the horses in this way was a 
very mean act, and had this young man 
been more thoughtful at that time of 
what was right and what was wrong, he 
would have scorned the idea of doing such 
a thing-. But bad deeds are remembered 
as well as g-ood ones, and the only way 
to have people always think well of us is 
for us always to do well. 



12 EUGENE FIEIrD 

One of his favorite enjo^^ments was 
sitig-itig-, and many a nig-ht the people of 
Columbia were aroused from their sleep 
b}' the sweet tenor voice of Kug-ene Field 
out with a serenading- party. 

When he studied no one knew, but he 
did not entirely neg-lect his lessons, for 
he always passed his examinations quite 
well. In an oratorical contest in which 
many students took part, he won the medal 
over all of them. Heg-ot fun out of this 
contest as he did out of everything- else, for 
he presented a big- wooden spoon in which 
he had written a humorous verse, to one 
of the young- men who had been defeated 
by him. 

It was while in school here that he 
learned to love the writing-s of an old 
Latin poet, Horace, and throug-h his 



EUGENE FIEI.D 13 



knowleclg-e of this old author, he g-eiined 
for a friend the Hon. William E. Glad- 
stone, 

Nearly twenty years after Bug-ene 
Field's school days in Columbia, he vis- 
ited the "Grand Old Man" at his home, 
Hawarden Castle, in Eng-land. They 
exchanged translations of Horace, and 
when Mr. Field left Hawarden, he carried 
with him as a present from Mr. Glad- 
stone, the famous ax which this sturdy 
old man had used in chopping- down trees 
in the forest near his home. 

At the close of school in 1872 Mr. 
Field decided to spend a year traveling 
in Europe with Mr. Comstock, a college 
friend. They went to Mr. Comstock's 
home in St. Joseph, Missouri, for a short 
visit before startinsr on their trio. 



14 EUGENE FIETvD 

A month was spent here in this pleas- 
ant family. These were happ}', g-olden 
days to Kug-ene Field. Miss Julia, the 
second daug-hter, a sweet g-irl of fifteen, 
was his favorite companion. They soon 
became very much attached to each other 
and before he left for Kurope he had suc- 
ceeded in making her promise to become 
his wife sometime. 

At the end of the month, after a fond 
farewell to his little sweetheart, he and 
his friend left for their European trip. 
Before they reached the Atlantic coast 
Mr. Comstock missed Mr. Field. He 
searched for him but failed to find him 
anywhere. He had no idea where he 
was, but his sister Julia knew, for he had 
come back to St. Joseph to see her again 
before he took his long- journey. 



KUGKNE FIELD 15 

Roswell Martin Field, Eug-ene's father, 
had been a noted lawj^er, and had 
made quite a fortune. Eug-ene's share 
of this was sixty thousand dollars, but by 
the time he returned from his trip 
throug-h Italy and France, little of all this 
money was left, thoug-h he had traveled 
but six months instead of a year as he 
had intended. 



16 EUGENE FIELD 



III. 

NEWSPAPKR AND LITERARY 
WORK. 

*ffT was ag-ood thing- for Eiig"ene P^ield 
that his mone}^ was g-oiie, for now he felt 
the need of having- something- to do. A 
friend advised him to try newspaper work, 
so he became a reporter on the St. Louis 
Journal. From St. Louis he went to St. 
Joseph where he was associate-editor of 
the Gazette. The next position he held 
was that of managing- editor of the Kan- 
sas Cit}^ Times. He afterwards took a 
similar position on the Denver Tribune. 

In 1883 Mr. Field went to Chicag-o. 
Here he accepted a position on the staff 



EUGENE FIELD 17 

of the Morning- News. The name of this 
paper was afterwards chang-ed to the 
Chicag-o Record. He remained with this 
paper until the time of his death, editing 
the column in it known as "Sharps and 
P'lats." 

His newspaper work was not like other 
men's. There was a brig-htness and a 
humor in it that pleased everybody, and 
he soon became well known all over the 
United States. But his fame now rests 
mainly on his verses for children. 

This man was always a child. He 
loved children and childish thing-s, and 
enjoyed romping- and playing- as well as 
he did when a boy. 

He himself loved "the little toy dog- " 
and "the little toy soldier," so we find 
his "Little Boy Blue" loving- them, too. 



18 EUGENE FIELD 

He knew the joys of a trundle-bed, so 
he tells us of the vojag-e to Dreamland of 
"Wjnken, Blynken and Nod" in their 
wooden shoe. 

He was always surrounded by dogs and 
cats and loved fancy pieces of china, so 
this is the reason he has told us such an 
amusing- story of what a Chinese plate 
told him about a fight that occurred one 
night between a gingham dog and a 
calico cat. You will enjoy reading about 
them in the little verses entitled "The 
Duel." 

Had he not sometime in his life been 
afraid of the dark, he could not have so 
well written "Seein' Things at 
Night," which tells us how a little boy- 
felt and what he saw after the light was 
taken away and he was left alone in the 
dark. 



EUGENE FIELD 1^ 



The little poem entitled "Some Time'' 
tells us how he loved his own children. 
Read this one, also, for it will help 3 on 
to feel how much your father and mother 
love you. 

One person writing- about the help that 
came to people through Mr. Field's poems 
tells us the following- story:— 
"I came upon an old, white-haired man 
in the burying- g-rouud of a Canadian vil- 
lage. He was reading, not his Bible, 
though it lay close beside, but a news- 
paper. He lifted a peaceful face to mine 
and said, in answer to my inquiry, 'I 
haven't felt so well since she left me as 
I do to-day. You see, I've been reading 
of another old grandfather who had to 
go on living a spell after he had lost his 
sunshine, and the man who wrote it— he 



20 EUGENE FIELD 

seems to kind of know — ^just — how^— it 
feels.' And the tears fell upon the paper 
on his knee. He had been reading- Eu- 
g-ene Field's poem, 'Telling- the Bees.'" 
Mr. Field verj^ often received letters 
from children telling- him how much the}' 
liked his verses, and, big--hearted man 
that he was, he answered the childish 
scrawls. 

Once a little g-irl wrote and told him 
she intended to be just such a writer as 
he was, when she g-rew to be a woman. 
He answered her letter, telling- her of all 
the beautiful thing-s he could see from 
his window, of the birds and the flowers; 
and then ended bj saying-, ''Now I must 
go out and shoot a buffalo for breakfast." 

Do you not wish that 3'ou all mig-ht 
have had a letter from this man who knew 



EUGENE FIELD 21 

SO well how to please childen? As this, 
of course, is impossible, you may still 
learii very much about the kind of man 
he was, and what he has written for 3'ou 
by reading- all of the poems which are 
spoken of in this story. You will also 
find many more pretty poems and stories 
for children in his books: " Love 
Song-s of Childhood," "With Trumpet 
and Drum," ''Little Book of Western 
Verse," " Second Book of Verse," '"Lit- 
tle Book of Profitable Tales," and " The 
Holy Cross and Other Tales." 

Perhaps Santa Claus may sometime 
bring you one of these books, and if he 
should do so, be sure to read it carefully. 

At the time of his death Mr. Field was 
busily eng-ag-ed in writing- a book, "The 
Love Affairs of a Bib-li-o-ma-ni-ac." 
This lontr word means one who is verv 



22 KUGENE FIELD 



fond of books, and the story tells us of 
the pleasures that come to one who loves 
to own books and read them. 



EUGENK FIKI.D 23 



HOME LIFE. 

^N an October day in 1873 there Was to 
be a wedding- in St. Joseph. The guests 
had assembled at the church, the bridal 
party was waiting-, the hour for the mar- 
riag-e was near at hand, but the bride- 
groom came not. 

Some of of his friends, knowing- how 
forg-etful this young- man was, went in 
search of him; and where do you suppose 
they found him, and who do you suppose 
it was ? 

It was none other than Mr. Eug-ene 
Field, down on his knees in the dirt, set- 



24 SUGKNE PlKLt) 



tliiio;- a quarrel between two little street 
urchins over a game of marbles. 

The sig-ht of his friends brought to his 
mind the thought that tliis was his wed- 
ding day, so he hastened to the church, 
where he was united in marriage with 
Miss Julia Southerland Comstock. 

Their married life was a very happy 
one; for Mr. Field was a noble, kind- 
hearted husband, and Mrs. Field a good, ? ^ 
faithful wife. 

Mr. Field's most pleasant hours were 
those spent at home with his wife and 
children. To his wife he was a petted 
child who had to be carefully looked 
after, to his children he was an older 
brother whose sole aim was to make 
them happy. 

He called his home at Buena Park, 
Chicago, the Sabine Farm; and his 



EUGENE FIELD 25 

Study in this home, he called his "den." 
Could you have peeped into this room 
when Mr. Field was there, you would 
have seen a very tall, slender man with 
a sober, yet pleasant, face. Had he 
caug-ht a g-limpse of you, his deep-set, 
bluish-^ray eyes would have beamed up- 
on 3^ou so kindly that you surely would 
have entered the room where he was and 
have asked him about the wonderful 
thing-s it contained. 

You would have seen in this "den'' all 
kinds of funny toys, dolls more than a 
hundred, dainty china dishes, queer old 
candlesticks, Indian relics, cases of but- 
ter-flies, cag-es of canaries, and souvenirs 
of noted men and women from all over 
the world. 

The children's play room was often in 
his study, for he loved to have them 



26 EUGENE) FIELD 



near him. He sometimes took the baby, 
put it in a big- clothes basket, and let it 
play with toys which he fastened to the 
end of a fishing- pole. He would write 
till he grew tired, then turn awa}' from 
his desk and play with the children till 
he felt like working again. 

He called all his children by pet names, 
as he had called his animal friends when 
a boy. 

To others, his oldest daughter was 
Mary French Field, but to him, she was 
Trotty. The boys, Eugene and Fred- 
erick, were known to him as Pinny and 
Daisy, and the two baby children he 
called Posie and Little Sister Girl. 

Once when some one asked Posie his 
and his little sister's names, he said: 
**My name is Posie, but my next name is 



EUGENE FIELD 27 

Roswell Francis Field; and hers is Lit- 
tle Sister Girl, but her next name is Ruth 
Gray. Sanders" (meaning- his father) 
"always calls us Posie an' Sister." 

On being- asked what he intended to do 
when he became a man, he said: "Write 
stories like Sanders 'bout animals." 

One day some one was readiug aloud 
from a newspaper something- about the 
"Child Poet." They wondered if Posie, 
who was in the room, understood who 
was meant by the "Child Poet," so they 
asked him. He looked v^exed to think 
they would ask him such a simple ques- 
tion, and quickly replied, "Us — Sanders 
'n' me." 

Mrs. Field had to do all the managing- 
for the family, for Mr. Field knew but one 
use for money, and that was to spend it 



28 EUGENE FIELD 

as fast as he made it. She loved her 
husband so well that she never learned 
not to entrust him with money. 

Once she g'ave him fifty dollars which 
was to be used in paying- the rent. He left 
the house fully intending- to use the 
money as directed. But, g'oing down the 
street, he met a man with eight cases of 
butterflies. In a very short time Mr. 
Field had the butterflies and the man the 
fifty dollars. Rushing home with them, 
he called out to his wife, "Never mind 
about that rent. I've got the finest col- 
lection of butterflies on the North Side." 
Mrs. Field merely said, "Dear me! 'Gene, 
where on earth can we put them?" 

Another time she gave him twenty 
dollars to pay some bills, and you could 
never sruess what he did with it. He 



EUGENE FIELD 29 

Spent it for a little dog*. He knew that 
Mrs. Field wonld think that the money 
had been spent foolishly, so when he 
reached home he lay face downward on 
the floor, and remained there till his wife 
came and asked him what had happened. 
He then told her what he had done, and 
begg'ed her forg-iveness. As soon as she 
forgave him, he g-ot up and raced throug-h 
the house with his new pet. 

With all her cares and anxieties Mrs. 
Field did not lose her youthful beauty, 
or her sweet, loving disposition. No one 
was prouder of this fact than her hus- 
band, who loved to write her dainty little 
verses which told her these thing-s in a 
very pretty way. 

One summer Mr. and Mrs. Field went 
back to St. Joseph on a visit. While 



30 EUGENE FIELD 

there they were invited to a lunch party. 
Mrs. Field went with some of their 
friends, and Mr. Field was to come later. 
But he, left alone, thought of the old days 
when he was a youth, and she a maiden, 
and, forgetting- all about the lunch 
party, he took a carriage and drove alone 
to all the places they had so often visited 
in the happy time of their love-making. 
One of these places called "Lover's 
Lane," he has told us of in a poem writ- 
ten when he and his family were in 
London. 

No one ever loved a book more than 
Eugene Field. He called the New Eng- 
land Primer his first love. 

One of his greatest pleasures was mak- 
ing collections of books. He spent so 
much money for rare old volumes that 



EUGENE FIELD 31 



he felt ashamed to tell his wife; so when 
he came home with a new book, he often 
told her that Mr. Flail, Judg-e Trask or 
Colonel Bisland had given it to him. 

He soon had so many books obtained 
in this way that Mrs. Field felt very 
grateful to these unknown friends who 
had been so kind to her husband, and in- 
sisted on their being- invited to the Field 
home to dinner. Mr. Field then had to 
tell her they were just "make-believe" 
people, and that he, himself, had bought 
the books. 

But with all of Mr. Field's reckless 
use of money, and a desire to turn the 
house into a combined museum, menag- 
erie and library, there was no happier 
home in all that great city than the one 
where was found Eugene Field and his 
wife and children. 



32 EUGENE FIELD 



V. 

CONCLUSION. 
^URING the last years of his life, Mr. 
Field became very popular as a reader of 
his own poems. He had an eng-ag^ement 
to g'ive a reading- in Kansas Cit}^ on Mon- 
day evening', November 4, 1895; but when 
the evening- came, he was lying- dead in 
his home at the Sabine Farm in Buena 
Park, Chicag-o. 

He had been suffering- from a severe 
cold for several days, but no one thoug-ht 
of his being- very ill. After a pleasant 
evening- spent with his family and a 
friend who had intended to g-o with him 
to Kansas City, he retired Sunday night 



EUGENE FIELD 33 

feeling- better than he had for some time; 
but he died from heart failure the next 
morning at 5 o'clock. He was buried 
in Graceland Cemeterj-, Wednesday, No- 
vember 6. 

The family had many friends who sor- 
rowed with them, but none more truly so 
than the little poor children whom he 
had in some way befriended. 

A little crippled boy, a stranger to the 
family, came before the funeral and 
asked if he might see Mr. Field. His re- 
quest was granted, and he hobbled into 
the death chamber, where he stood piti- 
fully g-azing- at the face of his dead 
friend. 

A little g-irl, too poor to buy a flower, 
begged a yellow rose to take to Mr. Field, 
as a mark of her love for him. 



34 EUGENE FIEI.D 



The family, fully knowing- which flower 
would be his choice, could he have 
selected it, chose this simple rose 
from all the beautiful flowers sent, and 
placed it in his hand as he lay in his 
casket ready for the tomb, thus forming* 
a bond to the last between him and the 
children. 

Mr. Field little dreamed that he would 
be compelled to leave his work while yet 
m the prime of life. He felt that his 
best days were yet to come. As he g-rew 
older, his writing's became better, and had 
he lived to a ripe old ag-e, as did Longfel- 
low, Whittier, Bryant and Holmes, we 
surely should have had many more beauti- 
ful thing's from the pen of this poet, who 
knew so well how to touch our hearts. 

Memorial services were held on Sun- 



EUGENE FIELD 35 



day, November 10, and the vast crowd 
which filled the hall and packed the 
street told how well Chicag-o loved 
Eug-ene Field. 

During- this service, the Rev. Dr. Bris- 
tol expressed the following- beautiful 
thoug-ht: 

"Some day, out in God's acre, where 
ang-els sing- their 'Sleep, Oh, Sleep,' a 
monument shall mark the resting- place 
of our g-entle poet; and let it be built, as 
was Daniel Defoe's in London, by the 
loving-, g-rateful contribution of the child- 
ren ol the land." 

Money is being raised by the people of 
Chicag-o for the purpose of erecting- a 
monument, in Lincoln Park, to the mem- 
ory of Eug-ene Field. 

But Chicag-o is not alone in her efforts 



36 EUGENE FIELD 



to pay tribute to this sweet sing-er, for no 
place loves Kug-ene Field more than Mis- 
souri. She feels he is hers, also; for here 
he was bom, here he finished his educa- 
tion, here he did his first newspaper 
work, and here he was married. 

Since his death, the fourth da}- of No- 
vember has been known as Field Day in 
-Missouri, and memorial exercises are held 
by the school children, The boys and 
g-irls have g"iven their pennies, nickels 
and dimes for a monument to be erected on 
the campus of the State University of 
Missouri at Columbia. 

A fitting- desig-n for this monument 
would be a statue of Eug-ene Field with 
^'Little Sister Girl" on his knee and 
'"Posie" nestling- by hisside; while on the 
base should be the inscription — "Sanders 
an' me!" 



EUGENE FIELD 37 



When this monument is unveiled, it 
should be a joyous, as well as a solemn oc- 
casion, and one in which the brig-ht faced 
boys and girls of our public schools could 
join in singing- the songs and reciting the 
poems of their fallen comrade and friend; 
for these are the ones for whom this 
man loved to toil and sing. 



May the sweet memories of Eugene 
Field's deeds of kindness and the beauty 
of his simple rhymes long be a blessings 
to the children of our free, happy land! 



THE END. 



LIBRPRY OF CONGRESS 



iilllii 

015 785 975 4( 



